UAB HEAD COACH MURRY BARTOW: Murry Bartow (UAB, 1985) is in his 5th season as head coach of the Blazers. He has a 73-52 (.584) overall mark and 34-28 (.548) in C-USA games. Bartow has taken the Blazers to postseason action in three of his first four seasons and has compiled a pair of 20-plus win campaigns. UAB captured the 1999 Conference USA National Division title and made the program's 10th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the 1st for UAB since 1994. The year-by-year breakdown for Coach Bartow ...
Season Overall C-USA Postseason
1996-97 18-14 7-7 NIT
1997-98 21-12 10-6 NIT
1998-99 20-12 10-6 NCAA
1999-00 14-14 7-9 ------
Totals 73-52 34-28

UNDER MURRY BARTOW: The Blazers have ...
* made 3 postseason visits in 4 years
* posted back-to-back 20-victory seasons during the 1997-98 & 1998-99 campaigns (the 1st since 1992-93 & 93-94)
* reached the C-USA Tournament semifinals in 3 of 4 seasons
* has led one of only five C-USA schools to at least 70 victories over the last four seasons
* led UAB to first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1999, the first trip since 1994

BLAZERS OPEN 23RD BASKETBALL SEASON: UAB begins its 23rd season of basketball tonight when they take on Alabama A&M. The Blazers have compiled an all-time record of 438-236 for a 63.6 winning percentage. In the programs first 22 seasons, the Blazers have earned a trip to postseason play 17 times, including 10 appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

ALL-TIME HOME RECORD: The Alabama A&M contest begins the 13th season in Bartow Arena for the Blazers as their permanent home. UAB has collected a 142-29 record in the building for a winning percentage of 83.0 percent. UAB was 11-2 here last season and has won at least 10 games at Bartow Arena in all but one campaign. In all-time home games, the Blazers are 275-65 (.809).

AGAINST THE BULLDOGS: Tonight's meeting with Alabama A&M will be the second in men's basketball between the two schools. UAB captured the previous contest 82-53 to open its home schedule last season on Nov. 23 (see page 3 for game story and box score). Former Blazer Eric Holmes paced UAB with 18 points, while current senior LeAndrew Bass tallied 16 and current sophomore Morris Finley poured in 10.

SEASON & HOME OPENERS: The Blazers are 13-9 all-time in season openers and 17-5 in home openers. UAB has won three of its last four games to start a season and has notched the last five games opening home games.

EARLY RETURNS: In those two exhibitions contests, the Blazers showed they could score points by averaging 98 points per contest. UAB also collected 21.5 assists, 10.5 3-pointers and 9.5 steals per contest, to along with a 53.3 shooting percentage from the floor -- converting 81 of 152 shots. From 3-point range, the Blazers hit 21 of 49 attempts for a made percentage of 42.9.

NOVEMBER GAMES: The Blazers are 41-19 all-time in games played in November for a 68.3 winning percentage.

THE LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL: The UAB men's basketball team has been picked to finish third in the National Division of Conference USA by the league's 12 coaches in their annual preseason poll. The Bearcats of Cincinnati have been picked to win their sixth straight league championship in 2000-2001, while South Florida junior forward B.B. Waldon garnered the preseason Player of the Year nod. Waldon collected 17.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game for the Bulls last season.

EARLIER START TMES: With the exception of two 8:30 p.m. television games this season at home, the Blazers have moved their home game times up 30 minutes this season. In all, 15 of the 17 home contests at Bartow Arena will take place at 7 p.m.

GAME TIME CHANGE: The Feb. 3 game slated at Southern Mississippi has been moved from 5 to 3 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN Regional television. The USM game is one of three ESPN Regional telecasts slated for broadcast. The other two are at South Florida (Feb. 10) and at DePaul (Feb. 24). The Blazers open C-USA play with an ESPN2 broadcast.

THE ROSTER: The Blazers return eight players from last year's squad, while welcoming six newcomers into the fold. Of the 14 players on the 2000-2001 team, seven hail from the state of Alabama, while three call Tennessee home, along with two from Kentucky, one from New York and one from Serbia. The roster lists five seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen.

THE INJURIES: Two players will not be available for action tonight as a result of various injuries --
Myron Ransom - Suffered a ACL injury in right knee injury during a game with teammates over the summer. The knee was operated on (Aug. 21) and Ransom continues to work toward returning to practice.
Morris Finley - Has a back injury sustained over the summer and is out indefinitely.

BALL RETURNS TO PRACTICE: Sophomore Sidney Ball, who has been out with a knee injury the last few weeks, returned to practice Saturday for the Blazers and will be available if needed against the Bulldogs.

BASS RANKS 10TH IN ASSISTS: Senior LeAndrew Bass begins his senior season ranked 10th on the school charts in assists with 263. Bass needs 28 to move ahead of Oliver Robinson who tallied 290 from 1978 to 1982.

PERFECT IN EXHIBITIONS: Murry Bartow is perfect in games against exhibition opponents, going 10-0 against non-regular season opponents.

DISHING THE BASKETBALL: The Blazers tallied 43 assists in their two exhibition contests, while only turning over the basketball just 26 times for a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio.

SPREADING THE WEALTH: Five different Blazers scored in double figures in both of its exhibition contests. Junior college transfer P.J. Arnold led the team in scoring over the two games with a 20 points per contest average coming off the bench.

MORE THAN JUST SCORING: In both of the exhibition tilts, sophomore Tony Johnson has done the little things to be successful for the Blazers. Last Thursday against Marathon Basketball, Johnson collected six points and four rebounds, along with seven assists, four steals and no turnovers. Against the California All-Stars Johnson contributed with six points and seven rebounds, to go along with five assists, one block and only one turnover.

NEXT OPPONENT: The Blazers return to action Saturday when they face LaSalle in an 8:30 p.m. contest. It will be the first time the two schools have met on the hardwood. The game will be the third contest of the day and played as part of the UAB Classic. Louisiana-Monroe takes on Tennessee-Martin in women's action at 2 p.m., followed by the Lady Blazers and Kansas at 6 p.m.